This invention relates to a container for containing and transporting hard disks which function as magnetic storage medium for a storage device of a computer. The container may be used for a carrier for processing the disks.
As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a prior hard disk container 1 comprises a container body 2 in the form of a rack carrier having a plurality of U-shaped disk receiving grooves 3 provided in an inner surface of the container body 2 in a spaced manner and in which magnetic hard disks (not shown) are engaged, respectively, and having end openings 4 provided in both ends of the container body 2 to expose central holes of the hard disks therethrough for inserting a tool therethrough and upper and lower openings provided in upper and lower portions of the container body 2. An upper cover 5 is mounted on the container body 2 at its upper portion to close the upper opening and the end openings 4 and has a positioning protrusion 5a on the upper face of the upper cover 5. Also, a lower cover 6 is mounted on the container body 2 at its lower portion to close the lower opening and has a positioning recess 6a to receive a positioning protrusion 5a on an upper cover 5 of a container therebelow as as to permit stacking the hard disk containers upon the other. The upper and lower covers 5 and 6 are loosely mounted on the container body 2.
Although the hard disk container 1 may be discarded after being used only one time or reused after a full cleaning and refurbishing process, it tends to be reused because hard disks have rapidly become cheaper in the same manner as semiconductors. Thus, it will be noted that the hard disk container is required to have durability if it is to be reused.
However, the prior hard disk container has the following various drawbacks. One of them is that the prior container has no air-tightness because the upper and lower covers 5 and 6 are loosely mounted on the container body 2 as aforementioned. Thus, the container breathes due to variation in ambient temperature to cause it to inhale humidity and/or dust to contaminate surfaces of the hard disks which have a mirror-like finish, which probably causes them to vary in physical properties. This causes the hard disks to be ineffectively reproduced and to have little durability.
Another drawback is that the hard disks loosely engage the grooves 3 in the container body 2 because the grooves 3 are formed so wide as to allow the hard disks to be introduced easily into and/or be easily withdrawn out of the sliding grooves 3. Although the upper cover 5 has bracket 56 provided thereon so as to position the hard disks in the sliding grooves 3, it is difficult to engage the brackets with the hard disks because they loosely engage the sliding grooves 3. Thus, the hard disks tend to be contained in the container body 2 in a slightly inclined manner so that they distort the brackets, which causes the durability of the container to be shortened.
A further drawback is that since the upper and lower covers 5 and 6 are frequently removed from the container body 2, it is difficult to mount them on the corresponding container body 2. More particularly, the hard disk container is so conditioned that the upper and lower covers 5 and 6 are removed from the container body 2 when processing the hard disks and are in place only during their transportation and storage. Thus, the container body 2 and the upper and lower covers 5 and 6 are seldom combined with each other after two uses although they are combined at the beginning of use. Since the times of processing use of the container body 2 are different from the times of use of the upper and lower covers 5 and 6, the covers cannot be mounted on the former in an air-tight manner. In order to avoid this problem, an operator should always match the lot numbers indicated on the container body 2 and the covers 5 and 6 of the containers. However, it is troublesome and in addition has low accuracy of because the operator matches them with his eyes.